Family: Woman found dead in Riverhead ‘was a very good person’

FAMILY COURTESY PHOTO | Mirian Garcia of Aquebogue was found dead Monday outside the Riverhead restaurant where she was last seen Saturday night.

The family of the 29-year-old Aquebogue woman whose body was discovered Monday morning in a wooded area near the Riverhead DMV parking lot described her as a talented person with a big heart in interviews this week.

Mirian Yohana Garcia Mansilla, originally of Guatemala, was last seen at the Sabor Latino bar and restaurant, which is in the same Peconic Plaza shopping center as the DMV, said Suffolk police Lt. Jack Fitzpatrick.

Detectives have ruled Ms. Garcia’s death a homicide based on a determination by the Office of the County Medical Examiner, officials said, though police have not yet released a cause of death.

Ms. Garcia lived with her uncle in Aquebogue, family members said Wednesday. She previously lived on Bell Avenue in Flanders, the address provided by police, but had never updated her identification.

Ms. Garcia was always supportive of her family, her sister, Zully Garcia, said through a translator. “She was a very good person, she helped anyone she could around her,” she said.

Family members said that when Ms. Garcia’s nephew, an infant, died this February, she was there to help her family through the tragedy.

Mirian Garcia was an avid soccer player and played goalie for a women’s team in Cutchogue, relatives said.

Visiting hours for Ms. Garcia are scheduled for Thursday, May 10, from 6 to 9 p.m. at McLaughlin Heppner Funeral Home in Riverhead. Funeral services will be held Saturday, May 12, at 3 p.m. at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints on Middle Road.

Read more about Ms. Garcia, including comments from her mother, in Thursday’s issue of the Riverhead News-Review.